Paolo Roversi

Looking for Juliet. Pirelli Calendar 2020

MOSCOW GOVERNMENT 

MOSCOW CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE 

MULTIMEDIA ART MUSEUM, MOSCOW 

PIRELLI 

AS PART OF THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN MOSCOW ‘PHOTOBIENNALE-2020’ 

PRESENT THE EXHIBITION 

PIRELLI CALENDAR 2020 
 

29 October 2020 — 21 February 2021 

As part of the ‘Photobiennale-2020’, the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents an exhibition by the legendary Pirelli Calendar. The author of this 47th edition of the calendar is celebrated Italian photographer Paolo Roversi. Our museum previously showed his work at the Photobiennale 2010, and the biennale of ‘Fashion and Style in Photography-2015’. 

Paolo Roversi sought a simple and powerful love story inextricably linked to Italy in his concept for the new calendar. William Shakespeare’s great drama ‘Romeo and Juliet’ proved the ideal realisation of this idea. The shoot took place in Verona, birthplace of the protagonists in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and also in Paris, where the photographer has lived for more than 40 years. 

The heroines of his project are stars of contemporary cinema, music and art: Claire Foy, Emma Watson, Kristen Stewart, Mia Goth, Chris Lee, Indya Moore, Rosalía, Stella Roversi and Yara Shahidi.   

‘I was looking for a pure soul, someone full of innocence that combined strength, beauty, tenderness and courage. I found this in the glimmer of an eye, in the gestures and words of Emma and Yara, Indya and Mia. And in the smiles and tears of Kristen and Claire. In the voice and chants of Chris and Rosalía. And in Stella, the innocence. Because there’s a Juliet in every woman, and I will never stop looking for her,’ says Paolo Roversi.  

The calendar reflects all stages of the project. First Paolo Roversi photographs his models at the moment they arrive on set, devoid of make-up or stage costumes. Meanwhile shooting is underway in which Roversi talks with the project participants, trying to feel and subsequently convey on film their vision of the image and ideas of what a contemporary Juliet could be. Next the models dress in costumes, transforming before the viewer’s eyes into the legendary heroine of Shakespeare’s drama. Paolo Roversi tells a story in which reality and fiction are merged and the boundaries between them lose definition, an aspect that is acutely felt in the photographs. 

The calendar comprises 132 pages, including excerpts from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ along with drawings and 58 colour or black and white photographs depicting the heroines and the city of Verona. Marked in the calendar are the birthdates of participants in the project, and key dates in Juliet’s life: her birth, the encounter with Romeo, her marriage and death…  

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One of the most famous and sought-after fashion photographers today, Paolo Roversi was born in Ravenna (Italy) in 1947. He became interested in photography as a teenager, during a family holiday in Spain. On his return home he eagerly set up a darkroom in a cellar. After a while Paolo met the photographer Nevio Natali, who became his teacher and good friend. In Natali’s studio Roversi acquired the necessary professional skills that in 1970 enabled him to start work with the Associated Press. Paolo Roversi’s first assignment was his report from Ezra Pound’s funeral in Venice. 

The young photographer was often commissioned for portraits. That same year, in 1970, he opened his own portrait studio in Ravenna, where local celebrities and their families became the main clients. 

In 1971 Paolo Roversi met Peter Knapp, the legendary art director of ELLE. In November 1973 Knapp invited him to Paris, where he has now lived and worked for over 40 years. Through his new French friends, many of them involved in magazine and art work, it was in Paris that Paolo Roversi became acquainted with the world of fashion. In 1974 the British fashion photographer Laurence Sackman hired Roversi as an assistant. Sackman was notorious for his difficult character, and after studying with him for some nine months Paolo Roversi set off alone and began collaboration with ELLE, Depeche Mode and Marie Claire. In 1980 an advertising campaign for the Christian Dior fashion house brought him worldwide fame. For this project Paolo Roversi began using 8х10 inch Polaroid shots, which later became his signature style.  

The Italian photographer has always preferred studio photography. Roversi worked in his own Paris apartment for many years before finding a suitable studio at 9 rue Paul Fort, where he is still based, in 1981. 

Paolo Roversi collaborates with prestigious magazines, fashion designers and brands across the globe. Today he is one of the most highly paid and influential fashion photographers in the world.